We left Fraser Station today full of excitement with seeing an end to the Nullarbor. Don’t get me wrong; everyone should do it once in their lifetime as it’s an amazing journey, but we are ready for a change in scenery. Our destination today was Kalgoorlie, the home of the ‘Super Pit’.
We called into Norseman to grab some fuel and rations for lunch. The fuel was OK at $1.60, the food was expensive and my check out chick at IGA for some reason was really rude to me. I asked her if there was a newsagency in town, I got a grunted yeah, and when I asked where it was she replied it’s closed on Sundays. Now I may be wrong, but isn’t Sunday’s with the Sunday paper the most busy day of the week for a newsagency?? Also apparently they don’t pack your groceries into green bags here either; they just push it all down to the end of the counter. And with not a sign in sight I was told I couldn’t eftpos under $20 (at the time of payment, after everything had gone through the register!!) So I had to hold up the line and duck across to the redi-teller and get some cash. OMG - without the traveller’s that call into this town, it wouldn’t survive.
We made it into Kalgoorlie at lunchtime and got a site at the local Top Tourist Park in Boulder. There’s a pool, so Scarlett is over the moon. We headed out to the ‘Gold Miners Hall of Fame’ and had a great afternoon walking around all the historical displays. We were privileged to see a gold pouring demonstration; it was amazing to see how hot the kiln got. We were then able to hold the $14,000 bullion when it cooled. Scarlett climbed all over a very big dump truck, considering it was only days earlier she was amazed to see a brand new one on the back of a truck crossing the S.A. border, all 4 million dollars worth.
 |
| Excavator Simulator |
Shane has booked in for a ‘Pitch Black’ tour tomorrow; it’s an adventure tour that goes underground into a real gold mine. ‘Western Australia postcards’ the T.V. show will be on this tour, and he more than likely will get onto their episode when it airs. Scarlett and I are going to go back and do a dump truck tour, and the mine buggy ride. It should be an interesting day.
Shane and Scarlett went for a swim in the pool this afternoon while I cooked dinner. Shane came back and said it was so cold; Scarlett didn’t care though and swam with some miners’ kids who live in the park.We went for a drive up to the Super Pit’s lookout this evening. OMG it was breathtaking, I have never seen anything like it. I knew it was big because it borders the whole town, but I didn’t realise it was this big. We stood there is awe the three of us for an hour, just watching the huge dump trucks making their run down to the bottom, to be filled with the excavator, then make their way all the way back up to the top. I have always wanted to be a mine dump truck driver, and now more than ever! This 400km detour to Kalgoorlie has already proved worth the time.
 |
| $14,000 right there... |
 |
| Excavator Bucket at Lookout |
 |
| Super Pit at night |
No comments:
Post a Comment